Marcia Gay Harden Quotes

When I started out, there were three things that made film people look at me with condescension, I was young, I was black, and I was female. I have won a certain respect, but I think the film community still sees directing as a male job.

It's hard for women at my age in Hollywood, but I'm not discouraged.

It's not just in Hollywood that women run the risk of being passed by once they reach 50. It happens in real life, too.

There's still a massive inequality between the genders. If you look at the trajectory of a male actor's career, there's no hesitation or hiatus. But women after the age of 35 to 40 are rarely placed in the centre of the story.

I think all industries are sexist in nature and I don't think the film industry is any different.

I'm going to be 58, and I'm a woman. In this business, that seems to be a bigger crime than being mentally ill.

I get asked why there aren't more female directors all the time. I'm kind of reluctant to talk about it. That's not because I think the question is irrelevant or stupid. It's just that there are so many mitigating factors.

There are still people who have an issue working with a woman director. Women can be viewed as 'difficult' even though they work in the same way as men.

I feel like women are asked their age more than men.

Huge studio movies are handed over to a man with less experience before they're handed over to a woman with less experience. That's a fact. But I think it's not just about men not hiring women: it's about women not hiring women, too.

I don't think actresses' lives in general are very good.

Hollywood is hard on women.

I have been working in male-dominated industries most of my life. When I started my career in investment banking, I was one of two women in my analyst class.

Women are not making it to the top of any profession in the world. But when I say, 'The blunt truth is that men run the world,' people say, 'Really?' That, to me, is the problem.

We often hear of a male director directing a great indie and immediately being offered the next huge comic book movie. Rarely, if ever, does this happen to a woman.

A high-powered, successful woman doesn't necessarily have the same support behind her that a man in that position would. Plus, she's expected to be a domestic goddess, as well as the best wife, mother, friend, and lover. But it's not just in politics: you see it in acting, too, and in journalism.

Women are usually only interesting to studio executives when they are fecund, between the ages of 15 and 30. I decided to get through the really tough patch, around 50, by just cutting my price and playing ten years older. I didn't want to have to wait until I was an old lady to play one.

Hollywood is the definition of sexual discrimination.

We call our little girls bossy. Go to a playground; little girls get called bossy all the time - a word that's almost never used for boys - and that leads directly to the problems women face in the workforce.

I think older women's voices are the most hated voices in the world - whether it's because people are reminded of their mothers or what, I don't know.

Men are allowed to get older and women are not.

I've never found it made the slightest difference being a woman - though there is a sort of feeling that as you get older you're not so interesting.

The sexism in Hollywood is not particularly overt - because the system is good at hiding it.

It's more acceptable for guys to get old and craggy and become wonderful character actors as they get older, but women aren't allowed to get old and craggy in the same way.

I happen to have worked with male directors who don't understand women at all. Not at all. I'm flabbergasted by their ignorance.